Angles of Attack, Part One
Team Titan Think Tank Issue 5- "Angles of Attack, Part One." Front cover- The Master of Arms sit on one side of a table, Cain on the other; they are playing a game of chess, whilst Cain drinks cofee with the other hand. The issue opens with Cain and Yu (possibly not at a chess board, but they could be) the reader sees them from above, having their meeting. "This 'team' is a shambles." Cain says simply, running a claw gently against the rim of the mug he holds in the other hand. The two are in a meeting room quite similar to the previous one, albeit smaller, more generic, and certainly lacking the T on the table. Yu places his glass of water back down onto the table, his expression grim. "True. I can see that there will be a lot of work to do before we can unlock their potential. Mr. Psychic seems to be the only other one with any real experience...however, we need to work with what we've got. They -do- have a lot of potential..." "Indeed." Cain says, taking a sip from the mug and leaning forward. "Now, far be it from me to tell you how to commit to your assigned task... but as leader of a rather substantial army, I cannot convey the importance of giving them something to unite toward. Now I know that the Director wants them all to save the city, and that's all good and noble. But I fear... that may not be deep enough. To most of them, it simply isn't... *personal*." "Of course, what do they care? Gunn and Tonic shouldn't have a problem with that, but as for the others..." He shakes his head, falling silent for a moment. "Oh, and you may tell me all you wish: I'm no leader." "Ah." he says, dipping his own head, "Another facet of our little predicament. A good leader all but substitutes a good reason, you see. Someone who inspires. Someone they can turn to when the mission goes wrong." Cain slinks back a little, breathing the next sentence a little lower, "Someone they can... trust." Yu nods slowly, watching Cain carefully. "Mhmm. We'd be fools to just name a leader now. The training will tell us who will be the most suited of them." "Ah, yes. The training." Cain says, fully attentive, "I assume you have some plan for that already." Yu nods. "We'll be making full use of the holographic room they have here, that...Rumble Room. Their fitness, abilities and confidence will be tested and, if they do not break, improved. I took the liberty of picking out some likely looking programmes." He slides across a small, fancy-looking PDA, alreading displaying the names and descriptions of a few training simulations. Cain rapidly skims through the PDA with practiced gestures. "Intriguing... as close as we'll get to preparation against our actual oppoents as we'll get, I'm certain. I may dare suggest one more, considering my familiarity with the Expendisaurs, coupled with my... *pessimistic*, guess, at what the Surge drug could have done to them.That certainly allows us to gel in a combat situation, at any rate. And unless you can think of some suitably cunning and compelling reasoning as to how, on some unknown level, we all truly *need* to solve the crisis in Titan City, that may be all we share." Yu nods, making an open-handed gesture at Cain. "By all means. If there are any other specific foes you feel we should simulate encounters with, let me know. I want to make use of your wealth of...unique experience. Already, I can see the beginnings of bonds being formed. If they need any further motivation in the future, then I will give it to them." "I'll certainly be trusting your... expertise, on that." Cain replies, a little snidely Yu nods slowly, uncaring of the barb. "Time will tell, and these next few days will show exactly what each of them needs. Then, we can adjust from there. For now, we start simple, testing the water. I suggest having an exercise first thing tomorrow morning." We cut to the team, the next morning, inside the Rumble Room, Sonne, Mr Psychic, GM, Reb and Tonic stand side by side in a line, whilst Cain and Yu stand before them. The Rumble Room is currently inactive and is simply a white featureless cuboid chamber. Reb looks round wide eyed at the featureless room. The Games Master hops from foot to foot in anticipation. Yu stands with feet planted, shoulder-width apart, holding a guan dao (a chinese spear with a curved blade) horizontally infront of him in both hands, weighing the other four up with his eyes. Tonic seems to be trying to merge with the wall...this time only metaphorically, but is fidgeting nervously. Cain stands just to Yu's right, arms folded, eyeing everyone curiously. Gunn is stood still, arms folded. The white void has some colour enter it as the currently featureless doors swish open behind Cain and Yu, revealing the corridor behind. Entering the room comes a triceratops, a humanoid triceratops, dressed in an immaculate red pinstripe suit. The triceratops is six foot high, but looks taller, due to the top hat which his two forehead horns come out at either side of. Tonic attempts to back away, but meets wall and ends up scrabbling a little bit in an entirely unheroic way. "T-t-two dinosaurs!" Reb shrieks with glee. The triceratops takes a gold pocket watch out of a suit jacket pocket and glances at it in a surprsingly human looking, red-scaled hand (his suit being the same colour as his scales.) "Ah, a minute late. My apologies, old chap, but there were scones in the cafeteria" he says to Cain. His voice is deep, booming and INCREDIBLY posh. "T-t-two dinosaurs and ONES A TRICERATOPS!" Reb continues. "Forgivable, I'd say." assures Cain, giving the other dinosaur a warm smile "Thats MISTER Triceratops, young man. Or, Mister Tops, if you prefer" Tops says to Reb. "Sorry, Mister Triceratops." He rubs the back of his head. "It's just triceratops is my favourite dinosaur..." "I dare say you've put in your fair share of hours in here already" Cain adds once Reb has quietened, "Admittedly, not like this..." "Willing to help wherever I can, old Jurassic." Yu has turned to face Mr. Tops by now, swiveling smartly on his heels. He listens patiently, even though his body seems primed to spring into action at a moment's notice. Tonic appears to be looking at the floor and muttering "please don't eat me" over and over... "Ah, you must be the Master of Arms. A pleasure. I am Mister Arnold Triceratops, personal assistant to Mister Cain. Genengineered with hands to aid him in the tasks he finds difficult. Consider me his 'and carer' on this mission. The Director has cleared approval for my presence." Reb looks to Mr Tops, beaming at him and his glorious dinosaurness. Yu gives a smart bow. "Very well, Mr. Triceratops. Will you be particpating in this exercise?" "It was Master Cain's insistance that I do, good man." "As the good sir said, he'll be on the mission. It seems beneficial to simulate that, does it not?" Cain adds, Yu makes an affirmative grunt, weighing Mr. Tops up as he did with the others. "What can you provide to a combat situation, other than thumbs?" "As Cain said, I have been putting in a lot of hours in this cube. It turns out they don't like me growing to gigantic size in the base. Which reminds me. I can grow to gigantic size. And I am otherwise a masterful fighter at this size." He also taps his hard shell, and his thorns. "Also these to take into consideration." "S...speaking of...c...combat..." Tonic fidgets "...I...I'm r...eally not cut out for c...combat...it might be d...d....dangerous..." she mutters in a tentative just-over-a-whisper "I t...t...think I should b...be...ex...excused..." Games Master continued to jog on the spot."Bring it-" he urges. Yu nods as he listens to Mr. Tops, satisfied with his answer. Without warning, he practically leaps over to Tonic as he catches her words. For a moment, he looks like he's about to chastise her, standing only a few feet away from her, his spear still held before him. He cools, though. "...no. When we enter the city, there will be danger, and you must become accustomed to it. This is for your benefit, if you wish to do what you want to do in there." She jumps about a foot into the air and shrieks...and almost gives a flail. And the air in front of her seems to move and distort, becoming a solid wall of...graphite (the stuff pencil leads are made from) that will come so close to Yu that he will be able to feel it against his skin...from the other side, equally moulded into the graphite, comes a shaky and slightly angry voice of "Don't make me jump, I don't want to turn you into caramel by mistake!!!!" Reb pokes the graphite. "Neat." "So what do you go by, Graphite Girl?" says Tops, very amused GM continues to jog on the spot, but turns in acknowlegdement to Tonic's show of power. The wall of graphite disappears and Tonic stared embarrassedly at the floor..."s....sorry...I did warn you..." Yu steps back out of the Yu-shaped indentation that Tonic had kindly left in the wall when she created it. He watches her for a moment, thinking to himself, before turning to Mr. Tops, letting him speak. "If she can't gather her wits," Cain says as an aside to Tops, "We'll be calling her 'liability'." "Heh. Good one." She turns a very vivid shade of crimson and shuffles backwards, still staring fixedly at the floor "All right, lets not embarass her. Training is what we're here for" says Sonne "We all have to start somewhere." "And there, you have my agreement. I trust everyone is prepared?" he asks, glacing over the group, leaving his gaze on Yu. "Ready when the rest of you are", Mr Psychic says. "I'm ready" says Sonne, fist punching the air. "...not really..." Tonic mutters GM nods sternly, looking 'at-the-ready' "Always good to punch some heads." Tops slams a fist into a palm with a nod to Cain. "Wait...am i going to be actually fighting?" Reb suddenly realises what this training might be Yu takes in a deep, quiet breath. "Let us do what needs to be done. Red Buddha?" He doesn't seem to pay any heed to Reb's inquirey or Tonic's negative response. "I am here, old friend" says the soothing, zen, Chinese accented voice that dwells with in the base "Activating simulation- 'Think Tank 1- Angles of Attack.'" Yu looks up at the ceiling as he addresses the consciousness, rocking on the balls of his feet. He had opened his mouth to speak, but shuts it again, smiling faintly. Tonic steps sideways, towards Reb, and leans in to talk into his ear "...s...stick near me...I...I'll try to keep us out of danger...o...ok? N...not letting a kid get hurt..." Colour melts down from the ceiling all around you "Kay Miss Toni... Dr Toni." Where pure white once was, the heroes are now surrounded by ruins; the ground is mud and dirt. The sky is grey and overcast, in the distance you can see rising hills and trees crowning them, but immediately around them are the ruins of stone buildings. They all appear to be stood in a circular town square essentially, clear of rubble and obstructions for 50ft diameter around them. There is nothing but mostly dried mud and the odd piece of stone jutting from the ground in this area. Beyond this diameter, there are buildings in various states of repair; ahead of them is a long walled building, wide but not very high. The walls facing you are mostly gone, but the opposite wall still stands, holding up the structure, which has a ground floor and a partially existant first floor, though most of the floor is gone, though stairs can still be seen leading up there. The building is about thirty foot long, and there are windows without glass or frames, and occasional holes in the outer wall of various sizes. Behind you there is a tall tower about 40ft high, which seems mostly in tact, though the top of the tower has fallen, exposing the top of the stairs to the winds. The fallen tower top has landed on the building to its right and smashed it pieces, its more or less a pile of rubble with a large piece of rubble in the middle of it, the point rammed into the floor. Stretching out from the tower to the left of it and arcing round it to their right is a wall, though it is missing segments; there is an intended gap of twenty foot as a dirt path goes in between the parts of the wall and up a hill on your right to further ruined structures. Behind them and to their left are the blasted remains of one story stone buildings, and more dirt path 'streets' wind between them, and the reader can see taller ruins in the distance that imply a town. Reb whistles. "Awww man, thats cool!" he looks around, dinosaur-awesome forgotten. Then he turns around suddenly. Intriguing..." Cain muses. Yu glances about, getting his bearings and taking in his environment. He says nothing, simply sliding a foot back as he adopts a ready stance, spear held by his side. Tonic spins, her gaze following something. Cain gently touches at his chin with one hand, standing tall, flexing his his other claw as its scales morph to grow obviously thicker. Mr Psychic looks to his left and right as if he's heard something. Yu whirls around. "Behind us." "Behind us?2 Sonne declares. "Nevermind that. You can obviously see the refresh rate, some of the pixelation here is appauling, nevermind the scents. It's like a child's idea of a warzon- oh." As most of you turn to where Yu turns, to the broken wall with the road in the middle, looking at the side closer to the tower, on the right "This must be some seriously advanced graphic holograph-" James Masters says with awe. "Right down to business I see" says Mr Psychic. "...N...n...not pixels...t...technically..." "Let's get an idea for this, then!" Sonne gives a winning smile, his 'helmet' deploying, projecting a yellow-tinted power field over his face as his legs build up a mist of red energy, coursing through his legs, before he leaps into the air. "Get into one of the buildings, watch your corners!" "Corners?" Reb says. "He means keep your eyes open. Do as he says." Yu places himself between the origin of the sound and the others. Sonne flies about twenty feet in the air. Games Master hustles over to the wall, heading for the end which is coming from the tower and stopping at the dirt road, staying on your side of it as he approaches. He hunkers down behind the wall.. and then part of the wall explodes outwards athim, as if it has been hit by a speeding truck, or some similar force. The comic cuts to Sonne, who immediately looks in the right direction but can only see dust and flying bits of stone. "The heck?" The dust and stone engulfs Games Master. The comic zooms in on GM's face as he is hit by a piece of rubble. The comic cuts to the rubble and dust clearing as Sonne sees an unhurt GM simply wipe the dust off of his face as the crumbled bits of stone lie at his feet. "Not a problem", GM says with his usual confidence. Before Games Master stands a man made of clay; he is very short, a little above five foot, he is Chinese in features and his body is moulded to appear to have scale mail. One hand has been formed into a huge solidified clay flail, which is swinging round and around. His 'hair' is formed into a topknot. "... That's odd", says Sonne. Games Master punches him right in the face; the clay-man's head flies off and lands on the ground behind the torso. "Ka-pow!" Games Master makes a victory pose. And then the head grows back, as the clay-man pokes it to ensure all is in order, and then a neck sprouts out of the head on the floor and then arms and a torso, as panel by panel, a copy grows. Both look to Games Master and smile "Is it a problem now?" says the first End of issue.